insomniac

iTrader: (3)

I have a 1991 firebird. It has a aftermarket head unit which was in there when i bought the car a month ago. The radio always stay on, even with the car off, unless i remove the face of it. Any ideas?

I plan on putting in a subwoofer this weekend. If i dont fix that problem - which isnt a real big deal at this point to me because i can just pop the face off - but am i correct to assume that it will continue to send power to the remote wire and keep the amp on all times? or would removing the face take care of that to?

Also is the remote wire the yellow one that says accessory switch 12v+?

Thanks

naf

iTrader: (7)

Someone wired both power wires on the aftermarket deck to constant power and the power button on the deck may be fubar. Dig out the harness and identify the constant 12V and the switched 12V with a meter or test lamp. No telling what color they may be now.

RyanEricW

Not sure if this is a common issue, but I've noticed a short to power in my car's 12v switched power source going to the radio. The only reason I found that out is because someone ran a separate power wire to the fuse box to turn the radio on/off when I bought the car.

Needless to say....I still never found why that wire was shorted to power, and hooked it up as such normally, as it was only leaking ~1v.

On your radio harness you will have a red wire, and a yellow wire. Your 12v switched source I think is your yellow, while the constant 12v source is red.

So if you take a digital multimeter, (get a cheap one from autozone $20), set it to DC Volts, put the black lead on the black wire (ground), and test the voltage with the red lead connecting it to the red wire, then the yellow wire.

This should answer your questions. If you still can't figure it out, I suggest taking pictures of your harness with your radio out of the way and posting them on here so we can see it.

bcnvz28

Hope this helps.

firebird904

I had mine wired like that for a little while because my accessory switch didn't work in my firebird.

insomniac

iTrader: (3)

yeah pulled it out that is the case. how do i know if my accessory switch works, id hate to put back the wiring right, then have to re do it

91phoenix

iTrader: (5)

Use a test light on that wire. Check on acc and run. If it stays lit then the wire is good. Theen wire it properly and check before putting the stereo back in. Would not even hurt to drive around the block and see if bumps might cause it to loose power. If good then reinstall. If not you can always find another ignition hot wire to tap off for the radio.

insomniac

iTrader: (3)

u hit that right on the head....

thanks for the info everyone. fixed it in 20 mins.

hardon85

hey guys I had the same problem (temporarily) and only found the fix because I bought a factory service manual. I had to wire both the constant and switched power wires to the switched (accessory wire) just to get my radio to turn on. The reason for this was I had no constant power, I was also ready to run a new wire but after looking at the service manual I found that there is another fuse that runs the constant power to the radio. I believe it is the ARC fuse but I don't remember if that's it or not and according to my service manual that is the only thing that fuse runs but I replaced it with the car off and sure enough the radio turned right on so I pulled the radio out and fixed the radio and everything has worked right since. So if I were you I would hook it up the way it's supposed to be and if it works right that would probably explain why the wiring was wrong to begin with.

On a side note to the other poster who had a short in the accessory circuit but couldn't find it I have heard that the cigarette lighter is bad and something has melted inside of it to cause a short, you can try replacing it and see if it works.

MrIrocZ28

Hey, my problem is, I can't find any constant wiring to keep memory on the cd player. Everytime I get in my car, I have to reset the settings, how can you help me, thanks!!!

hardon85

check the above post but there's a fuse that's probably bad

oif0709

I had the same problem in my 89 camaro, i had to run a constant wire directly to the battery. I havent had a problem since and its been like that for a year now.

BluFBdy

iTrader: (1)

or you could hae avoided the ugly wire on the battery and wasted length by just tapping it off the colum......